For our last morning, we returned to the two floating reedbed hides, an early start again, which meant that the first couple of hours were in heavy shade until the sun rose high enough to light up the area. The set-up was that a space had been partially cleared in the reeds to put up feeders but leaving views of the water behind.

This presented it's own problems as the feeders were in heavy shade but the backdrop of reeds was in bright sunlight - a contrast nightmare.

Bearded Tits, both male and female, were regularly visiting the feeders

but this time, the main interesting activity was on the waterway behind the feeders, first with a small family of Red-crested Pochards

and a very cautious visit from a Marbled Duck, really checking us out.

before finally settling for a while.

But the surprise of the session was a rare White-headed Duck that rapidly paddled past allowing quick shots between the feeders

before paddling in the other direction half-an-hour later.

So not a vast number of images but interesting ones never-the-less.

After the long break for lunch, we were take to another pair of floating hides overlooking open water for our final session. This was not a success. A pair of juvenile Coots were almost a fixture

but the only other visitors were a family of Pochard, female and duckling, (one of five)

and the final shot of the whole trip - a Pochard duckling trying to look scary.

So, to sum up the whole trip. 16 days was too long. It could have been 10 days, 5 days in Cremenes and five days in El Taray. The guides from Aveshides really tried their level best to make it good for us, despite the really hot weather adversly affecting the wildlife so, overall, it was successful trip.

And now back to editing the latest from this area.